In
A Mist is
undoubtedly
the most important and famous of all of Bix Beiderbecke's compositions.
It is well documented that Bix recorded In A Mist on
September
9, 1927, but when did he compose it? Presumably,
Bix had been thinking about the composition for perhaps as many as
three
years prior to the recording. It is widely known that, whenever a piano
was available, Bix would sit down and play what many have described as
"beautiful chords". Indeed, there is credible evidence that the seeds
of In
A Mist go back as far as 1924. For example, Jess Stacy (who
later
was to record all of Bix's piano compositions) relates that in 1924 he
heard Bix play "a song called Baby Blue Eyes with the same
harmony
he used years later on In A Mist." ("Bix, The Leon Bix
Beiderbecke
Story" by Philip R. and Linda K. Evans, p.157). Cecil Huntzinger states
that in 1925 "Bix would play a few tunes on his horn, then would
switch
to the piano. We'd just listen and enjoy. He was playing In A Mist
although he didn't have a name for it. Try to imagine, hearing it in
1925."
("Bix, The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story" by Philip R. Evans and Linda K.
Evans, p. 182). Paul Mertz states that in 1926 "I remember hearing
what
was to become In A Mist for the first time here [the
Billihurst
Hotel in Detroit]." ("Bix, The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story" Philip R.
Evans
and Linda K. Evans, p. 235). Hughes Panassie in "Hot Jazz", p. 121
provides
some information, : "The principal motif of this piece [In A Mist]
was found by Bix while he was improvising on a piano... Bix
remembered
this motif, which was beautiful, and recorded it with improvisations on
it." As a matter of fact, the principal theme of In A Mist
was widely known among his fellow musicians prior to his recording it.
Evidently, throughout his active life, Bix was generating new musical
ideas
and trying them on any piano he could get his hands on. Most of his
improvisations
were not recorded, but, fortunately, In A Mist was
captured
on wax. The
circumstances
surrounding the recording are of interest. As related in "Bix: Man and
Legend" by Richard M. Sudhalter and Philip R. Evans, Tom Rockwell, an
OKeh
Records executive, had heard Bix's improvisations at the piano during
recording
sessions of the Frank Trumbauer Orchestra. Tom was impressed and asked
Frank to convince Bix to record what became known as In A Mist.
First, Bix was reluctant, but eventually he agreed. There were also
problems
during the recording session. The first take was too long. On the
second
take, Frank tapped Bix on the shoulder fifteen seconds before the
three-minute
alloted time. Bix added the appropriate coda and successfully completed
the piece in the required time.The recording was mastered and issued.
The
rest is history.

The
OKeh File Card of "In A Mist".

GENERAL PHONOGRAPH CORPORATIONRecord Laboratories(However, "General" is crossed
out and replaced with "OKeh")DATE Sept. 8, 1927 W81426-aW81426-B = useRecorded by H Size = 10"Catalog No. 40916Coupled with W81450-aSpecial Catlogue No.November 15, 1927Selection...In A MistBy...Bix Beiderbecke
Accompanied
by...Composed by...BeiderbeckeFrom...Publisher...Robbins Music Corp
Copyright...Yes, 1927Address...799 - 7th Ave, NYC
sent
copyright info.9-12-27Remarks...piano soloThe contents of the file card was copied by
Scott
Wenzel from the Sony Archives. I am grateful to Scott for sending this
information and for his permission to reproduce it here.

The
Sheet Music of "In A Mist".

The
sheet music was published about a year later, on November 18, 1928, by
The Robbins Music Corporation of New York as "Paul Whiteman Presents a
Modern Composition for the Piano -- In A Mist -- by Bix
Beiderbecke."
The first page of the music includes under the title the phrase "Edited
by William H. Challis".
The circumstances surrounding the publishing of the music are also of
interest.
As related by Bill
Challis (Bix, The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story, by Philip R. and
Linda
K. Evans, p. 302-303), "He [Jack Robbins] wanted to publish
it [In
A Mist] because he knew the Paul Whiteman connection was a good
outlet.
[Paul Whiteman was part owner of the Robbins Corporation; hence several
of its publications were part of the Paul Whiteman presents series] Jack
asked me if I'd do the arrangement. Jack had a definite idea as to the
format. He wanted a rhythmic opening, then he wanted a melodic middle
part,
along the lines of Rhapsody in Blue. Bix didn't take too long
to
write the melodic part. When Bix could find the time, he'd come to my
apartment,
where we did the arranging. When we first started, we'd get down about
four bars. Never more than eight or ten. We crawled and it took us six
months to do the arrangements. Bix would play each part two or three
times.
He was very patient as he wanted to complete the work." The
recorded
version and the published version differ in several ways. As pointed
out
by Geoffrey J. Haydon in his Ph. D. dissertation,
"An entire section, present in the published work, is omitted in the
recorded version. Other differences are due to the improvisational
nature
of some sections of the piece. Bix's right-hand single and double note
melodies feature different material in each version." Undoubtedly,
both versions were improvisations. Bill Challis complained that during
the transcription sessions, Bix would not replay a given part in the
same
manner. The improvisational style of Bix's playing is clearly
understood
by Bill Challis (Bix, The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story, Philip R. Evans
and
Linda K. Evans, p. 303) , "One thing I hate to hear is for people to
play In A Mist and improvise the tune. It is already an
improvisation
in itself. Play it the way Bix put it down!"

Other
Sources of the Sheet Music of "In A Mist."

"In
A Mist" was also published in "Play Like A Pro. 72 piano Arrangements
with
the Professional Touch," Edited by Stuart Isacoff and Becca Pulliam.
1994.
Ekay Music, Inc., 333 Adams Street, Bedford Hills, NY 10507. ISBN #:
0-943748-62-3.
"In A Mist" appears on pages 110 to 111 and is transcribed by Don
Wilhite.
In the opinion of Steen Hoffman from Denmark, the arrangement is
incomplete,
leaving out several choruses.I am grateful to Steen Hoffman for having sent
the above information.

A
book of sheet music called "Ragtime", compiled by David A. Jasen and
published
by Big 3 Music contains all four piano compositions by Bix.

An
arrangement (improvisation) on "In a Mist" by Mary Lou Williams is
found
in a book of piano solos calledI also ran across an arrangement
(improvisation)
on "In a Mist" by Mary Lou Williams in a book of piano solos called
"The
Genius of Jazz Giants-Book 3, Masters of Boogie-Woogie". This really
does
honor to the piece, writes Caroline Kraft, who kindly alerted me to the
existence of this source.

The
Origin of the Title.

There
are varying -and contradictory- accounts as to how the title of the
most
famous of Bix's compositions was conceived. In the seventeenth segment
of the Bix
program broadcast in 1971 by WMUB, the
radio station of Miami University in Ohio, Frank Trumbauer tells about
the recording session of September 9, 1927 for the OKeh Recording
Company.
Frank first describes the various attempts to get the recording done
within
the allotted time. Following the completion of the successful take 2,
Frank
then tells how the title came about. The following is an exact
transcription
of Frank's words: "In reviewing the master, we realized that we had
something very significant -at least we thought we did, but we couldn't
find a title for it and Tommy Rockwell, the recording manager of the
OKeh
Company at that time, said 'well this thing is all confused', he says
'it's
kind of foggy; after all we can't call it fog or haze; why don't we
call
it In A Mist?' And that's how the title was born." In "Tram -
The
Frank Trumbauer Story" by Philip R. Evans and Larry F. Kiner, p. 76,
Frank
Trumbauer provides a different account of what transpired when the
successful
recording was completed: "Okay", said Tom. "But what will we call
it?"
Well, I thought to myself, Bix was certainly in a fog when he made it.
And then it hit me. Fog. Mist. In A Mist. That's it -"In A
Mist."
Yes, that's the true story of how it got its title. The success of this
composition is musical history. An account
similar
but not identical to the previous one is provided in "Bix, The Leon Bix
Beiderbecke Story" by Philip R. and Linda K. Evans, p. 280: "Tom
Rockwell
asked what the title was. Since Bix was somewhat in a fog when he
recorded
it, someone suggested using that idea in the title. Frank quickly
changed
"In A Fog" to the more evocative "In A Mist"." A third -
and
different - account is related in "Bix: Man and Legend" by Richard M.
Sudhalter
and Philip R. Evans, pp. 211 and 217. At the completion of the
recording
session, the recording engineer asked Bix for the name of the
composition.
Bix replied that he had not thought about it. Since Bix and Tram had a
recording date for the following week, it was proposed that they come
up
with a title by then.The story is taken up by Esten Spurrier (Bix's
high
school friend) who relates what Bix had told him. It was not until
October
5, 1927 that the question of the title was brought up again."As he
recalled
the story to Spurrier, the first person he [Bix] spied upon arrival was
the recording man who had supervised the piano solo session. "How about
that title, Bix? Thought of something yet?" "Gosh, I don't know," he
answered,
parking himself at the keyboard. In truth he hadn't given the matter a
moment's thought."Don't ask me that one today, man, I'm just in a fog."
With all the predictability of the commercially-conditioned mind, the
official
-whose name has been lost to recollection-recoiled in delight. "Hey!
That's
perfect! We'll call it "In A Fog". Bix, said Spurrier, scarcely hid his
annoyance. "Aw c'mon, man. That's corny. And besides, it sounds all
wrong-all
heavy, like a guy with a hangover. That's not the way I hear it." "I
like
it," the OKeh man repeated. "Unless you can come up with something
better,
it stays in." "After kicking it around for a while," said Spurrier,
"the
word "Mist" replaced "Fog." Bix said he thought it more in keeping with
his feeling for the thing. So "Mist" it was and "Mist" it stayed." Obviously,
we
have several interpretations, which, not only differ in detail, but are
contradictory. Frank Trumbauer himself provides two contradictory
accounts.
In one, he credits Tom Rockwell with the idea of the title. In the
other,
Trumbauer assigns to himself all the credit for the title. If we are to
accept Spurrier's account of what Bix told him, it does not seem likely
that Trumbauer could be responsible for the title. The October 5, 1927
recording date was scheduled for Bix Beiderbecke and His Gang, a group
which did NOT include Frank Trumbauer. According to Esten
Spurrier's
account of what Bix related to him, when asked for a title, Bix
complained
of being in a fog, and someone in the studio suggested the word "Mist".
That "someone", unless he happened to be hanging around in the studio,
could not have been Trumbauer, since he was not one of the musicians
who
took part in the recording session on that day. Nor could it have been
Tom Rockwell in view of Spurrier's account of the role of the recording
man in the discussion of what title to use. Which
version
are we to accept? Who had the idea for the title? Was it a single
individual?
Was it a collective effort? I think that the Spurrier account is the
most
believable; but will we ever know?

Bix's
Public Performance of "In A Mist".

On Sunday, October 7, 1928 at
8:30
p.m., Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra presented a concert in Carnegie
Hall.
This was the third in a series of experimental concerts. This
particular
occasion was the premiere performance of the "Paul Whiteman Presents"
fall
tour which consisted of eighty concerts or dances in twenty two states
and Canada. For the Carnegie Hall concert, the orchestra, which
consisted
of the twenty six regular members, was augmented by twelve violins.

According to
Thomas
A. DeLong, Pops: Paul Whiteman King of Jazz, New
Century Publishers, 1983,p.124: "On October 7 an
eager
audience of 7,000 gathered to hear Paul's latest concert program, with
its anticipated innovative works, colorful novelty numbers, and
uniquely
contrasting medleys." The "highbrow" compositions performed in the
concert were George Gershwin's Concerto in F and Ferde
Grofe's Metropolis
(the first public performance). The concert was "an exhibition for
the
remarkable virtuosity and precision of Whiteman's players. Willie Hall,
armed with trombone and bicycle pump, played a Grofe oddity entitled Free
Air, or Variation Based on Noises from a Garage. Chet
Hazlett
presented his own Valse Inspiration. The Sweet Trio vocalized Melody
Out of the Sky. Mike signed in with his banjo perennial, Linger
Awhile. An unusual twist was the premiere of a keyboard work by
Bix,
whose singular talent now began to focus on the piano. Bix joined Bargy
and Hayton in a three-piano rendition of Bix's own In A Mist." Richard M.
Sudhalter
and Philip R. Evans, Bix: Man and Legend, p. 256,
provide a description of Bix's presentation: "The program went off
without
incident, and when the time came for In A Mist, it was a
determined
Bix who left the brass section and walked forward to where his concert
grand had been wheeled out for him. There, in Carnegie Hall, with the
eyes
of thousands on him, Bix Beiderbecke, self-taught pianist, playing a
composition
he himself had written, with two pianists he deeply admired providing
discreet
accompaniment. It is only too possible to speculate on what was in his
mind at this supreme moment. Roy Bargy provides a small insight:
"Everyone
applauded loud and long, and Paul called for Bix to come forward and
take
a bow. He did, with a sort of nervous yet characteristically polite
"Thank
you," made a real quick dip toward the audience for a bow, and hurried
back to the section, as though embarrassed about the whole thing." This must
have
been one of the most satisfying moments in Bix's professional life. At
a time when he was becoming quite serious about musical composition and
turning more and more toward the piano as the vehicle for his
prodigious
musical inventiveness, performing his own piano masterpiece in one of
the
world's top concert halls was undoubtedly one of the highest points in
Bix's career.Addendum. On July 25, 2001 in
answer
to my question as to whether this concert was the first jazz concert to
take place in Carnegie Hall, Robert Hudson, Assistant Archivist,
Carnegie Hall wrote. "In fact, the 1928 Whiteman concert was not the
first
"jazz" concert at Carnegie Hall. That distinction belongs to
James
Reese Europe, whose Clef Club Orchestra played Carnegie Hall on May 2,
1912. Also, W.C. Handy gave a concert here (that included Fats
Waller)
on April 27 of 1928. Whitemanhimself had appeared in
Carnegie
Hall three times prior to the October 7, 1928 concert. For me,
the
real thrill about the October 7, 1928 concert is that we can now
confirm
Bix Beiderbecke definitely played at Carnegie Hall, and that he joins
the
long list of jazz legends that have performed here, inwhose company he truly belongs.

In
A Mist or Bixology?

The
OKeh record 3150 was issued in the United States as In A Mist.
Simultaneously with the release in the US, there were releases in
France
and England under the title Bixology. In addition,
subsequent
reissues in the US were also under the title Bixology. The name
Bixology
was undoubtedly inspired by Trumbology, a recording made
by Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra on February 4, 1927 (the same
day
that the inmortal Singin' the Blues was recorded).

The
Composition

Dick Hyman
analyzes
Bix's piano compositions - "Modern Suite" - in two articles published
in
the April and May 1985 issues of "Keyboard". The first article focusses
on "In A Mist", while the second covers the remaining compositions,
"Candlelights",
"Flashes" and "In The Dark". Mr. Hyman
explains
that Bix's piano compositions were transcribed by Bill Challis because
Bix had no formal musical training. This has consequences in that
"because
of Bix's reliance on Challis' notation, there are some hazardous hand
positions
in the sheet music." Mr.Hyman proposes and provides an example of "what
seems to be a more sensible distribution between the hands." Mr. Hyman
points
out that Bix's version in his 1927 recording is substantially different
form later recorded versions by other artists. First, a slow, lyrical
section
is not included in Bix's version. Second, "later interpreters have
tended
to play the piece more slowly and gracefully, although this tends to
pull
down the sprightliness of the subsequent jazzy sections". Mr. Hyman
speculates
that Bix's version may have been vivace because of the time
constrains
associated with 78 rpm recordings. In support of his hypothesis, he
cites
the fact that Challis published transcription is marked moderato. Mr. Hyman
concludes
his article by stating that "the piece may be performed at several
different
tempos and work in different ways. My own preference is for a slower
interpretation
than Bix's recordings, but not so slow as to turn the dance rythm into
a nocturne." The last
comment
is highly perceptive. "In A Mist", as recorded by Bix, is a jazz
composition.
Although the tempo may be varied, the spirit of that truly great piece
of music must not be tampered with.

I recently
prepared a transcription for the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation of a
piece I've been playing in two different forms since I was a teenager.
The back story, as journalists say, is complex and goes like this:

Bix Beiderbecke's only solo piano
recording, In A Mist, took place in New York on September 9,
1927. The piece, his own composition, also released under the title Bixology,
seems to have been in the making for several years; his friends
described him as frequently extemporizing similar material on whatever
piano was available. He was 24, already an experienced performer on
cornet with the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, and had gigged around the
Midwest since dropping out of school.

Although he had become known as a
startlingly inventive
soloist, both on cornet and piano, Bix's reading skill had always
lagged behind, and to notate the new piece for publication, Bix sought
the services of Bill Challis, a close associate who had arranged many
of the scores for the Goldkette Orchestra. As printed the following
year, In A Mist bears a credit for Challis for ''editing.''

The differences between the recorded
and published versions of In A Mist are both great and small:
great in that the recording entirely omits a pretty, slower section
marked Tranquilly
and substitutes a more rhythmic passage. The small differences are
those variations an improvising jazz player tends to make when
repeating material, offering equivalent but not identical figures
(compare bars 7 and 81).

All of this proved to be important
for a proposed dance
series by the Twyla Tharpe Dancers back in 1979. Twyla had
choreographed ''The Bix Pieces,'' which included In A Mist, and
had been performing it to a series of recordings. For the new season at
the Brooklyn Academy of Music, an on-stage pianist and orchestra would
perform the music live. I was called in to arrange and perform the
whole sequence, and it was the first time I encountered the problem of
the two In A Mists: the dancers were used to the recorded
version, and it wouldn't do for the pianist to play the considerably
different published version.

Since I was familiar with the piece
at that time, I
made an approximate version of the recording for my own use, a little
more detailed than a lead sheet but not altogether exact, and we
performed ''The Bix Pieces'' live a number of times. I don't believe
the dance has been done with piano and orchestra since that time.
Recently, however, the possibility of another live performance has come
up, not necessarily by Twyla Tharpe's dancers nor with me as the
pianist, so I was commissioned to get the recorded version on paper so
that it might be accurately read by another player. This is the result
of those efforts.

Bunny Berigan and
His Men.
Recorded
in
1938. Reissued in album "Bunny Plays Bix".

Larry Clinton.
Arranged for
orchestra. 1938 or 1939. Issued in CD "Larry Clinton and His Orchestra
: Live in 1938 and 1939", Jazz Band, 2000.

Unknown. 1940?
Vinyl test pressing,
perhaps Decca, never issued. Arrangement for harpsichord (really a
Novachord,
an early electric keyboard instrument) and wind octet. Information
about
the test pressing and a streaming file of the music can be found in
Norman
Field's website. Click
here.

Alix Combelle.
Recorded January
10, 1941. For piano and small group of French jazz musicians ("Le Jazz
de Paris"), including Django Reinhardt's brother, Joseph.
Reissued
in CD "1940-1941" Jazz Chronological Classics # 751. 1994. The title of
"In A Mist" is given in this recording as "En Souvenir." I
thank Jean-Pierre Lion for some of this information.

Mel Henke. 1947.
For
piano and
vocal group (The Honeydreamers) Vitacoustic U-669 (78 rpm record).
(I thank Bill Anthony for providing the information about this
version
of "In A Mist." To see the label, kindly supplied by Jean-Pierre Lion, click
here.)

The Les Jowett Seven.
1957.
For 7-piece band. In British Esquire LP "A Tribute to Les Jowett". The
pianist, who played and wrote the arrrangement, was Terry Whitney. Les
Jowett was a Bix-inspired cornet player who died at age 35 in the
1960. (I thank Malcolm Walton for first calling my attention to
this recording and for providing information . I also thank Pat
Bernham
for corrections and additional information. Pat writes, "I was on
some of the Les Jowett tracks playing guitar on the date when "In A
Mist"
was recorded. All this now referenced in the book The Brighton Jazz
Line by Keith Samuel and Peter Simpkins, EverGreen Graphics, UK
2002.")

Sauter-Finegan
Orchestra. The
arrangement is by Eddie Sauter and heavily features marimba player Joe
Venuto. In "Under Analysis LP, RCA Victor LPM-1364. Recorded in
1956.
I thank Daniel Krystkiewicz for providing this information. He writes,
" Under Analysis isan
album of arrangements paying tribute to various musicians of the
big-band
era, and I
suspect the arrangement of In A Mist here was inspired by the 1933
recording
by Sauter's old emplyer Red Norvo, as well as by Bix himself.

Clark Terry.
Arranged for orchestra.
In 1994 CD "Happy Horns". Originally released in 1964.

Armand Hug.
Piano
solo. 1968.
Issued on Dulai.

Len Bernard.
Piano
solo. Issued
in 1968 or 1969 by Swaggie.

Ralph Sutton.
Piano
solo. 1969.
In album "Knocked-Out Nocturne."

Dill Jones. Piano solo.
In
1972 Chiaroscuro
album "Davenport Blues."

Jack Crossan.
Clavicord solo.
In album "Keyboard Kaleidoscope", Westminster Gold WGS-8162, 1972. (I
thank Mike Heckman for providing the information about this version of
"In A Mist.")

Freddie Hubbard.
Arranged for
orchestra. In CD "Sky Dive". Originally recorded in 1972.

Bucky Pizzarelli.
Arranged for
guitar quintet. In album "The Bucky Pizzarelli Quintet Plays the Music
of Bix Beiderbecke in Arrangements by Bill Challis", 1974. Reissued on
CD in 1988, on Audiophile DADCD-238.

London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble.
Arranged for brass quintet. In Timeless CD "The London Gabrieli Brass
Ensemble, The Influence of Jazz." 1989. Last track of "Magnolia Suite."
The title of the track is not "In A Mist," but "The Inner Bix." I thank
Rob Rothberg for calling my attention to this recording.

Several of the versions listed above were found in the article
"Recordings
of the Piano Compositions of Bix Beiderbecke" by Ron Sweetman, IAJRC
Journal,
Vol. 36, No. 1, Winter 2002/2003. I thank Bryan Wright for
calling to my attention several of the versions listed above.

A
Piano Roll of "In A Mist"

Brad Kay
informed
me (e-mail message of 9/16/99) of the existence of a Duo-Art
piano
roll of "In A Mist", played by Constance Mering. According to Brad, "This
roll obviously came out not long after the piece was published by
Robbins.
Her rendition is faithful to the score, although she takes some curious
liberties with the time. The coda, for instance, is stretched to about
three times the length of Bix's OKeh rendering. She rolls many of the
chords
with her tiny feminine fingers, which is not surprising. There are a
lot
of big stretches in "In A Mist." The last "C" chord involves tenths in
each hand. To my knowledge, this item has never been mentioned in any
of
the reference books. Damn shame they didn't ask Bix to do the roll. I
wonder
if he even knew it had been made." I found a
source
of the piano roll atwww.pianorollshop.com/catalog_duoart_3.htm.
The roll is advertised as, "Here is Bix Beiderbecke's masterful jazz
piano
piece wonderfully interpreted by one of the queens of twenties piano,
Constance
Mering." Constance
Mering
recorded several piano duets with Muriel Pollock. A CD published in
1998,
"Keyboard Wizards of the Gershwin Era Vol. 6 - Lawnhurst, Pollock,
Mering"
(Pearl Records Historic Reissue GEMM CD 9206) features duets of Vee
Lawnhurst
and Muriel Pollock, and of Muriel Pollock and Constance Mering.
According
to the advertising for the CD, these three women "broke into the
traditional
male preserve of popular music by posing formidable triple threats:
performing,
arranging and composing.This disc features their extraordinary piano
duet
collaborations." Constance Mering stopped recording in 1931.Addendum:
Alan Wallace writes on 12/13/00: "I own a player piano andhave just recently obtained
Mering's
"In A Mist." I agree with Mr. Kay'stake on the roll. I would
like to add that this roll has been reissued bythe Keystone Music Roll Company
in Penn. Their URL ishttp://www.keystonemusicroll.com/index.htm"

Charles
Magnante wrote a number of arrangements of classical jazz pieces. These
were published in 1956 by the Robbins Music Corporation as a 48-page
booklet.
Among the pieces we find "In A Mist", "Stompin' At The Savoy", "The
Wang
Wang Blues", "China Boy", and "Alice Blue". Charles Magnante (1905-1986) was a
virtuoso accordionist. His radio and recording career started at
sixteen.
He performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at New York City's Carnegie
Hall
on April 18th, 1939. He was president of the American Accordionist's
Association
in 1950-51, 1955-56 and 1969-70.

Here are the contents of a
souvenir
programme of "The Melody Maker for the Invitation Concert for
Musicians"
at the Shepherd's Bush Pavilion, Sunday June 23rd. 1929. The concert
featured
Fred Elizalde and his Savoy Music and also Al Bowlly

7. "At The Turn Of The Tide"8. "Sweetheart Of All My Dreams"9. Fred Elizalde Will Play Some
Piano Solos: Also "In A Mist"10. "Bataclan" In Three
Movements,
This Is The First Performance Of "Bataclan" Which Was Composed By Fred
Elizalde For This Concert

Fred Elizalde And His Savoy
Music
By Kind Permission Of The Directors Of The Savoy Hotel London, At The
Shepherd's
Bush Pavilion, Sunday June 23rd.1929!

Note all the Bix
connections in
addition to "In A Mist." Chelsea Quealey and Norman Payne, great
admirers
and emulators of Bix; Bobby Davis and Adrian Rollini, who were with Bix
in the New Yorkers band in 1927 and recorded several sides with Bix;
Fud
Livingston, a Goldkette side man in 1925 and composer and arranger of
"Humptry
Dumpty" recorded by Frank Trumbauer with Bix, Bobby Davis, and Adrian
Rollini
on Sep 28. 1927. No wonder Elizalde played Bix's "In A Mist" at the
concert.

At
the invitation of our excellent
contemporary, The Melody Maker, some three thousand five hundred
enthusiastic
dance musicians and their friends assembled at the Shepherd's Bush
Pavilion on
Sunday, June 23rd, to hear a concert by Mr. Fred Elizalde's famous
Savoy Band.
The applications of another thousand had to be reluctantly refused.

The
orchestra, which is the most advanced
dance band in Europe, is perhaps not so good an ensemble as that of
Jack Hylton
or Bert Ambrose, but is more interesting to listen to. While it
contains some
very bright stars, it also has its weak places, notably the strings
section, as
was obvious when anything more ambitious than ordinary dance music was
attempted. The brass, with the exception of the first trumpet, was not
always
satisfactory, and the "slapping" of the double basses and the strumming
of the banjo and guitar to emphasise the rhythm were sometimes
overdone,
especially when one of the wind instruments was taking a solo. But
these
defects were greatly outweighed by some clever piano playing by
Elizalde
himself, the strength of the saxophones and other reed instruments and
the
first trumpet of Mr. Norman Payne, who took the lead at the last moment
owing
to the absence of Mr. Chelsea Quealey, who has been recalled suddenly
to
America. But where the band scores is in the brilliant arrangements and
orchestration of Mr. Fud Livingstone and Mr. Phil Cardew, who make even
the
dullest dance tune something worth hearing.

I
must pass over the performance of
contemporary dance music, good as it was, to the event of the
afternoon. This
was a suite, Bataclan, composed specially for the occasion by Mr.
Elizalde. I
must confess that I awaited this with a certain amount of scepticism. I
have
heard many of these ambitious suites for dance orchestras and, without
exception, I have never been able to get rid of the idea that their
only merit
has been to show off the tricks of the performers. Bataclan was
different. It
would be foolish to judge it at a first hearing, but it was good enough
to make
one forget the performers and listen to the music for its own sake. I
should
like to hear it performed by a really large orchestra where due
prominence
could be given to the strings. Mr. Elizalde, at the age of twenty-one,
is
undoubtedly quite exceptional in the dance world. Here is an
opportunity for
the recording companies. We get far too few records from Brunswick.

I
must conclude with a word of praise for a
composition by Bix Beiderbecke (Whiteman's first trumpet) entitled In A
Mist
and for the final encore, which was that splendid piece of ragtime
Tiger Rag. Finally,
all credit is due to Mr. Edgar Jackson, editor of The Melody Maker, who
was not
only responsible for the organisation but proved himself a born
announcer.